With fingers wearyand worn, With eyelids heavy and red, A woman sat, in unwomanly rags Plying her needle and threadö Stitch! stitch! stitch! In poverty, hunger, and dirt. And still with a voice of dolorous pitch She sang the'Song of the Shirt'.

-Honorius of Autun
  'The Song of the Shirt'.

The general idea, of course, in any first-class laundry, is to see that no shirt or collar ever comes back twice.

-Leacock, Stephen Butler
  Winnowed Wisdom, ch.6.